Recommended Hardware for Engineering Students

Students in engineering disciplines often have to use heavy tasks such as editing 3D drawings, designing circuit boards with many software requiring high configuration such as AutoCAD, Altium.

So, if you just use a standard thin laptop, it is challenging to meet the work needs. You need a considerable configuration machine for fast processing speed.

A laptop that can meet the needs of engineering students must meet the following requirements.

Processor Chip

This field of study has to use a lot of software to manipulate in parallel or create a multitude of huge files. Therefore, we should use the Core i5 CPU, or better should be Core i7.

Screen

The screen then I recommend that you choose at least 13 inches or more and use the IPS screen and have Full HD resolution. In fact, at the moment, most students use models of 15.6 inch or higher screen which is 17.3 inch

RAM

The best laptop for the engineering must be 8GB RAM to be able to handle multitasking tasks smoothly and stably.

Battery

When choosing a laptop for engineering students, you should also choose the Cell number is always more significant than the number 4.

Hard Drive

To best meet the needs of learning, the laptop hard drive for engineering students is at least 500GB. That way, you can store a lot of data like specialized software that needs to be available in AutoCAD, Solidworks, etc.

Best Laptop for Engineering Student – Top 5 Picks For You

Let’s take a look at the top 5 best laptops for engineering students below!

1. Acer Aspire E15 E5-576G-81GD – Best Overall For You

The Acer Aspire E15 uses an 8th Generation Core i7 processor with an upgradable clock speed of up to 4.0 GHz. The 8GB RAM and the 258GB SSD card help you quickly handle substantial programs and applications and complex projects.

The Acer Aspire E15 display is surrounded by rubber feet to isolate the display from the keyboard, keeping it clean. When the screen is opened, the entire projection area of ​​the device has a grainy pattern of check pattern and white tone.

Chick-let full-size keyboard helps you extremely type smoothly. The keyboard is exceptionally elastic. Primarily, it is no sound when you are typing.

On the right side of the device are the connection ports, including the charging port, optical drive, USB port. On the left are HDMI, VGA, LAN network ports, two USB 3.0 ports, 3.5mm headphone jack, USB 3.0 port can support charging the phone.

Acer Aspire E15 has an external speaker with True Harmony audio technology for a quite clear sound. The speaker is designed right below, protected by rubbers that prevent the speaker from coming into direct contact with the table, preventing slipping.

2. New Apple MacBook Air 2019 – Best Premium Laptop

Apple provides users with a single CPU option on the MacBook Air 2019, which is the Intel Core i5-8210Y. It is a power-saving CPU with a capacity of the only 7W to help the machine operate cool with longer battery life.

There are 128GB, and 256GB storage options, 8GB or 16GB RAM for you to choose, but the 8GB RAM version is the most popular.

On the MacBook Air 2019, the keyboard part continues to be upgraded to the 4th-generation Butterfly. Besides, the MacBook Air 2019 also has Touch ID that allows users to log in to the system faster than the traditional password input method. It also helps to buy applications from the App Store easier.

With the high resolution combined with True Tone technology, MacBook Air 2019 has an excellent display quality, not inferior to the more advanced MacBook Pro line. The screen reaches 100% of the sRGB color space, and 343 nits high brightness is sufficient for use in complex lighting environments.

The MacBook Air 2019 has the same performance as the 2018 version, not too overpowering but more than enough for office needs.

Mainly, thanks to the excellent hardware optimization of macOS, MacBook Air 2019 is suitable for multitasking ability. Open dozens of Chrome tabs running in parallel with Office software or Photoshop is not a problem with this laptop.

The 256GB SSD in the MacBook Air achieved a write speed of 1,011 MBps on the Blackmagic disk speed test, more than enough for the smoothest running task. MacBook Air 2019 can withstand nearly 13 hours with the web browsing test with Wi-Fi, more than enough for a working day.

3. Lenovo ThinkPad P52s Laptop – Best Desktop Replacement

When it comes to choosing laptops for engineering students, we should not overlook the Lenovo ThinkPad P52s. This is a compelling laptop product with a smart design that makes the laptop have a smooth and fast program processing speed.

The ThinkPad P52s has a 15.6-inch widescreen display surface, a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, and brightness is over 250 nits. These are enough for you to use the device outdoors. But you should avoid direct sunlight.

Lenovo Thinkpad P52s laptop is equipped with the Intel Core i7 chip, and the highest clock speed is 4.0GHz with Turbo Boost technology. So you can run many programs at the same time quickly, especially heavy engineering software and graphics.

Lenovo Thinkpad P52s also comes equipped with an NVIDIA Quadro P500 discrete graphics card, 2GB capacity that allows the laptop to run all applications without lag or stutter quickly. Besides, there is 16GB of RAM, 250GB hard, and has enough capacity for diverse storage.

This product has some minor changes to the gateway system compared to previous models of Lenovo. Instead of leaving the connection port on the bottom edge of the body, we now have the docking port on the side.

Lenovo Thinkpad P52s supports two USB C ports, including one Thunderbolt 3 port support, and exclusive mini Ethernet port. Besides, the product is also equipped with a webcam cover, like the ThinkPad 2018 or ThinkShutter.

The outer shell is protective plastic, and the inside is a layer of Aluminum-Magnesium alloy frame, giving the overall thickness of the machine is suitable.

It has a moderate weight (5.9 pounds) but still very solid, giving you complete peace of mind when used.

4. Dell Inspiron i5577-7342BLK-PUS – Best Portable

If you are looking for a mid-range laptop but still ensure a good appearance and stable configuration, the Dell Inspiron i5577-7342BLK-PUS is a suggestion worth your attention.

Dell Inspiron i5577-7342BLK-PUS laptop is designed with a luxurious plastic cover with a compact size of 10.43 x 15.7 x 0.99 inches.

Only 5.66 pounds, this laptop is also quite light for users to conveniently carry around on the go. With a square body design with a rugged plastic body, the edges are beveled to make it feel light and luxurious.

This laptop screen is rated as having extremely sharp pixels. With a large size up to 15.6 inches, and equipped with FHD Anti-Glare LED-Backlit Display technology, this laptop delivers quality and clarity images, and the color is also extremely vivid.

Besides, the manufacturer also equips this laptop with a perfect view, which will help users get more exciting experiences.

This device uses a Chiclet keyboard with the design of discrete keys, creating a self-explanatory layout for greater accuracy when typing. In addition, keys are also designed quite square, and the wide range of keys helps to perform operations faster.

On the Dell Inspiron i5577-7342BLK-PUS, the manufacturer has also simplified the touchpad. A small dash separates the left and right mouse buttons.

The rest of the mouse is covered with smooth paint, which ensures the operation of the user touches faster and more sensitive. At the same time, the touchpad also supports multi-touch if you have enough drivers installed.

Dell Inspiron i5577-7342BLK-PUS laptop has a relatively good configuration thanks to its outstanding parameters, ensuring functional performance for the machine.

The laptop is equipped with 7th-generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad Core chip with a clock speed of 2.8 GHz and a maximum of 3.8 GHz, making the multitasking machine smoother.

At the same time, this laptop is also integrated with 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card with 4GB capacity, and 512 GB hard drive. This configuration can completely handle the tasks related to the graphics field and meet all crucial data storage needs.

5. Asus ZenBook 13 Ultra-Slim Laptop – Best Budget

In terms of overall power, you will be happy with the Asus Zenbook 13 Ultra-Slim laptop because it is powered by an 8th Generation Intel Core processor, 8GB of RAM, comes with a 512GB SSD and a Full HD display.

The screen of the Zenbook 13 is only 13.3 inches in size, but thanks to the NanoEdge technology with ultra-thin borders, we feel like the screen is more prominent. Also, this screen has Full HD resolution for sharp display quality and authentic colors.

The actual use shows that the boot speed is very fast, only about 3 seconds. Zenbook 13 can handle the Office and graphics software very smoothly and efficiently.

According to Asus, the Zenbook 13 has a battery life of up to 15 hours. After testing using the device continuously with 75% screen brightness, continuous Wi-Fi, and Office tasks such as reading the newspaper, surfing Facebook, listening to music, the device lasted 13 hours. We can say this is one of the laptops with the most powerful battery on the market today.

Harman Kardon has certified the powerful sound system on Zenbook 13. Practical experience shows that the sound quality from Zenbook 13 is really excellent. The bass is a bit small, but it sounds very warm, and the treble is clear.

The case of this product is made entirely of Aluminum-Magnesium alloy, so the overall weight of the machine is very light only 2.5 pounds.

Besides, the device also has a fingerprint sensor with high sensitivity. Just one touch can unlock Windows.

In What Way Can You Choose Best Laptop for Engineering Student?

You can choose to buy any laptop that will meet your learning and work needs. However, in order to easily select the best laptop for engineering students, please refer to some of the following criteria!

CPU

Due to the characteristics and nature of the work often have to use software such as SketchUp, Autodesk 3Ds Max, etc. So laptops for engineering students must be strong to handle substantial information flows with high speed.

Usually, you not only run one software but two to three applications at the same time. If you only the weak CPU, you will experience the jerky and lag problem. The advice for you is to choose the machine with CPU from Core i5 or higher.

Weight

Many people often think that students studying engineering will choose a machine that is tough and heavy. But the truth is you can choose laptops with a compact design and high configuration weight of 3.0 pounds or less.

Currently, the laptop market is quite diverse in terms of design and weight. If you prefer a lightweight and portable product, an ultrabook laptop will be very suitable. Of course, the price will be high, and you can choose to go to other lightweight products at lower prices.

Display

Currently, there are many laptop screen sizes available but optimal for the engineering industry. For students majoring in engineering, you should choose laptops with screens from 13 inches to 15 inches will fit in use and travel.

Besides, depending on your needs, you can also choose a screen size ranging from 15.6 inches or 17.3 inches. Do not choose the screen size as small as 12.5 inches, because it will cause difficulties and inconvenience to use.

The screen resolution should be from Full HD (1920 x 1080) or higher, so when making graphics applications often have to zoom large, the high visibility will work more accurately.

In addition, the colors of Full HD or 4K screens will also be more convenient in making graphics applications and accurate to every detail when designing images.

RAM

Basically, RAM is a temporary memory to store data. That is, if you turn off the laptop or suddenly disconnect, the information on the RAM will also disappear. The more RAM is equipped, the more you will be able to handle multiple programs at once.

For those of you who study engineering or use software such as AutoCAD, Altium, or Proteus, I recommend choosing models with a RAM capacity of 8GB or more.

Also, you should also pay attention to the speed of RAM because raising RAM only gives you more processing space and does not mean increasing the reading speed.

Connectivity

Typically, an engineering student will have to use a lot of graphics software to design, along with the exercises, reports, or documents that need printing or presentation.

Therefore, when buying a laptop for engineering students, it is better to choose a machine with lots of high-speed ports.

Storage Drive

With a hard drive, you should choose SSD instead of HDD because SSD has faster boot speed as well as software, and also higher durability. The only drawback is that the price of SSD is quite high, if compared with the same amount, you can buy a much higher capacity HDD.

For you to do graphics, using professional software is almost imperative to use SSD to optimize usage time.

So when buying, you should choose the machine available SSD or select the device with integrated hard drive HDD + SSD.

Operating System

On the operating system, there will be two options for sale: Mac and Win. However, Macs often have a high price, so if the economy does not allow, you can also buy a Win to save money.

Moreover, some software is currently not available on Mac, so the selection of Windows is still more optimal.

FAQs

Do Engineers Use Mac Or Windows?

If eligible, a Macbook is suitable for work in almost all disciplines, including engineering students.

If you have difficulty installing the software, you can also have solutions such as installing the Windows operating system in parallel. Conversely, for many people, they do not like this inconvenience, so they will not choose the Macbook.

Therefore, the choice to use Mac or Windows is entirely due to the way people evaluate their field of study, work as well as what feels to bring comfort to themselves.

However, the majority of people still use Windows.

Is Gaming Laptop Good For Engineering?

The answer is no!

Although the two graphics laptop and gaming laptop products are equipped with strong internal configuration and high performance, each laptop produced has its own function.

If you use a gaming laptop to perform technical tasks, then a very hot laptop situation will occur. Besides, the lifespan of a machine can rapidly decrease when you try to divert its function in a different direction.

Do I Need 8 or 16 GB RAM?

For an engineering student, RAM of 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB depends on usage.

If your needs are high, please choose 8GB or 16GB RAM to best support the work. If you have enough memory to store and run applications, the upgrade will not increase performance but only cause waste.

In fact, 8GB of RAM is the most ideal because it is sufficient to meet the needs of a technical student. For large, complex projects that require a lot of tasks and fast processing speed, you should choose 16GB RAM.

Final Thoughts

Above is the information, as well as the list of best laptops for engineering students that you can refer to.

I hope that the content in this article can help you find a laptop that suits your needs, as well as will be excellent support for your learning to achieve the best results.

Edward Tashihira is an 25 year old blogger. He is a Software Engineer by profession and blogger by passion. He writes on various topics like Technology, Blogging, Web designing and SEO. He runs various other blogs under various niches.